Aired: December 03, 2008

Information: James is gearing up for Christmas in his new home. Over the years of trips that James has taken he and Arlene have been collecting Christmas ornaments from every place that they go to. James has been keeping an eye on online shopping statistics. Experian estimates that this year’s online sales have seen 11% growth over last year. E-Marketer expects a 10.1% increase. Online shopping is perfect for those who do not like to hit the malls. 32 billion in online sales are expected in the U.S. alone over the Christmas period. James talks about Black Friday (traditionally the Friday after Thanksgiving when retailers generate a large volume of sales “black ink”). Traditional brick and mortar sales are expected to be flat this year while online sales are expected to increase. Charles and James talk about not watching the news and the exaggeration around the economic downturn. James discusses Paula and Wanda who live in Australia the owners of TravelTripz.com. They have been working hard on their sites over time and the PAD technique new content they add shows up on Google almost immediately. They are being found by over 14000 different keyword phrases on Google. Paula and Wanda were not computer geeks to begin with but made their sites a success. Ultimately the relationship between the affiliate and the merchant is that the affiliate drives traffic and the merchant drives sales. If the conversions are not there then the affiliate needs to look for a merchant that does convert. They have had their success with Google Adsense and Amazon. People understand that if you want to have a successful website today you have to have a professional looking website.
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